Got a question for you, When I plug my guitar into the line in of my cheap designed for games soundcard, I have to pull the fader(in the windows volume control-recording panel) damn near all the way down. The music still comes back at a decent level, comparable to an mp3 I have stored on the hard disk. But I was wondering if this was normal. If I don't pull the fader down, then I'll get that nasty digital clipping. If I were to get a more costly sound card, would that change, will I be able to run a hotter signal into the computer? Will that make my recorded music louder. Or will the result be strictly subjective, where I could think it's better than my cheap card, and my friend would think the cheap card sounds better, or heard no real difference. would I be better off spending the money on a microphone?
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Well, if you are taking an effects box into the line in on a gen
Well, if you are taking an effects box into the line in on a generic sound card than I could see this as an issue. It all depends on the settings of the sound card you are using.
What is your audio path going into the sound card? In other words, does your guitar go directly into the sound card or does it go thru a mixer first?
Usually when I plug into my layla direct from a guitar I don't get much of a signal at all, I need to somehow boost the gain, this is when you need a DI(Direct Input) box. A DI box changes the gain of a line instrument to a nominal level for recording. What may be happening is that your generic soundblaster(Soundblabber I call them) has now way of knowing that you are plugging a high z input into it...those inputs are meant for microphones..computer mics that is..the gain on them is set pretty high for those applications and not just shoving a giutar into them..so this is normal for you to have to drop the volume.
Are you dropping the main output volume or are you adjusting the input volume?
Getting a better sound card will be the best thing for two reasons..
One: indeed better sound quality
Two: The ability to play more tracks with effects and so forth
Typically soundblaster cards can't handle a certain amount of buffering from the program..that's when you start getting drifts and out of sync playback
Opus
I am going from my guitar into a modeling preamp, a digitech rp2
I am going from my guitar into a modeling preamp, a digitech rp200, then into the line in in my computer. The thing you said about the high Z input, and the soundcard not being set up for it makes sense. It isn't a real problem, I can live with the sound quality, I am not shooting for a greammy or nothing. I was just wondering if it was normal to have to turn down the input volume. sounds like you are saying it is.
Any soundcard would not do well overdriven by a guitar pickup. A
Any soundcard would not do well overdriven by a guitar pickup. A guitar preamp or effects box is designed for this purpose. Miking your amp would be even better(if you don't have volume restraints). I use a Johnson J-Station, it makes a good scratchpad for sounds(with a software "rack"), and has a S/PDIF out that I can feed to my soundcard. This is kind of a "guitar meets computer" question; hey SOS, where are ya!